It was so wonderful to watch those uppity, arrogant Patriots lose..!
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Giants were not even supposed to be here this week, taking an unlikely playoff path through the behemoths of their conference and regarded, once they alighted on Super Bowl XLII, as little more than charming foils for the New England Patriots’s assault on immortality.
But with their defense battering the National Football League’s most valuable player, Tom Brady, and Giants quarterback Eli Manning playing more like Brady than Brady himself, the Giants, seemingly enlivened for the postseason by a 3-point loss to these same Patriots in the regular-season finale, crafted one of the greatest upsets in Super Bowl history, beating the Patriots, 17-14.
It was the first championship for the Giants since the 1991 Super Bowl. Back then, Bill Belichick was the Giants’ defensive coordinator. On Sunday, he was the coach who had led the Patriots to the brink of an historic perfect season, had survived a spying scandal that cost him money and his team a first-round draft pick, had weathered whispers in recent days that a previous title might be tainted, too, only to watch it all collapse under the weight of the Giants’ ferocious pass rush. For another year, the 1972 Miami Dolphins will stand alone with the only perfect season in N.F.L. history.
It was, fittingly, a brutal sack of Brady with 20 seconds remaining that seemed to end the Patriots’ final chance of saving their unblemished record. Brady heaved the ball nearly 80 yards in the air in a desperation shot to reach Randy Moss with 10 seconds left, but on the next play, when the fourth down pass fell to the ground, it was Tom Coughlin, embattled to start the season, who was embraced in congratulation by Belichick.
Belichick then left the field, even though the Giants had to run one more perfunctory play to get the last second off the clock.
Manning provided the snapshot for the game, pulling away from at least four Patriots on third down, and lofting the ball to David Tyree for a 32-yard reception that put the Giants at the Patriots’ 24-yard line with 59 seconds left in the game.
A few plays later, Manning lofted a pass to Plaxico Burress in the left corner of the end zone. Junior Seau, the Patriots linebacker, lay on the ground in distress. After the game, Burress wept on national television.
The Giants broke open the game with 11 minutes 5 seconds remaining after there had been no scoring since the first two drives of the game. But with a 45-yard pass to the rookie tight end Kevin Boss and then a perfect strike in the back of the end zone to David Tyree, the Giants seized the lead for the first time since their opening drive ended with a field goal.
Then, they struggled to stop the Patriots, who finally conjured the sort of quick-strike drive that defined their season, with Brady, who may have been hampered by his injured right ankle, finding Moss with a third-down touchdown pass.
The Patriots, accustomed to pulverizing opponents, needed every break they could muster and they appeared to have gotten a huge one on the first drive of the second half. The Patriots had been stalled on third down near midfield, but the Patriots spotted the Giants’ Chase Blackburn trying desperately to get off the field before the ball was snapped on the play. Coach Bill Belichick challenged the call and won, the Giants penalized 5 yards, allowing the drive to continue.
But it was a sign of how out of sync the Patriots were that even given second life, they could do nothing with it. On third and 7 from the Giants’ 25, Brady was sacked by Michael Strahan.
On fourth and 13, from the 31, Belichick decided not to attempt a 49-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, whose season long kick was 45 yards. The fourth down pass to the end zone was overthrown and Brady watched the ball sail away from his knees. Brady had sprained his ankle in the American Football Conference championship game and perhaps it was impairing his mechanics —
But the New England defense, rarely as underestimated in the Belichick era as they have been this season, halted the Giants again, with a fantastic play by cornerback Asante Samuel to tip the ball away from Plaxico Burress in the end zone late in the third quarter.
When these teams met in the regular-season finale, they engaged in a made-for-television shootout that ended 38-35 to complete the Patriots’ perfect regular season. But the Patriots looked nothing like that team — or the team that dominated the N.F.L. in the regular season — succumbing to a tidal wave of Giants pressure that ground the offense to a halt and put the onus on the Patriots’ defense to keep the game within reach.
Aside from the 7-3 score and one miscue, the first half went exactly as the Giants had hoped. They held the ball for almost 10 minutes on their opening drive and even if they stalled in the red zone — they settled for a field goal after having first and 10 at the Patriots’ 17-yard line — they accomplished a larger goal: keeping the ball away from the highest scoring offense in N.F.L. history. They also established an uneven, grinding tempo that would continue for the entire first half. The Giants held the ball for more than 19 minutes in the first half.
Then, using frequent blitzes, the defense got constant pressure on Brady, sending the N.F.L.’s most valuable player into one of his worst halves of football this season and nearly eliminating the deep pass from the Patriots’s playbook.
On the Patriots’ first drive of the game, they benefited from a 43-yard kickoff return by Laurence Maroney. The Patriots moved to the 17-yard line and were bailed out by a defensive pass interference call on Antonio Pierce in the end zone that gave the Patriots first and goal on the 1.
On two drives in the second quarter, the prolific offense ran six plays for -7 yards. On the Patriots’ final drive of the half, with under two minutes remaining, Justin Tuck roared in behind Brady, poking the ball from his hands. The fumble was recovered by Osi Umenyiora.
The Giants could not move in for a last-second score, but that was nearly beside the point. Their defense had dominated the game — Brady was sacked three times in the first half — and the Patriots appeared to play worse and worse with each drive. They managed only 81 yards of offense in the first half.
But they still led, in large part because the Patriots’ overlooked defense managed to match the Giants’. The Giants never got closer to the end zone than the Patriots’ 14-yard line in the first half, a stark contrast from the regular-season game, when the Giants were four-of-four in the red zone. Instead, after the Giants settled for the opening field goal, they were undone by the sort of mistakes they hadn’t made during their playoff run. On their first drive of the second half, the Patriots had third and 5 at the Patriots’ 14, and looked poised to settle for another field goal.
Instead, Manning’s pass was tipped by its intended receiver, Steve Smith, and it was intercepted by Ellis Hobbs, who had the interception that sealed the Patriots’s regular-season victory — the last interception Manning had thrown until Sunday night. Then the Patriots, who also blitzed often, took a page from the Giants, getting pressure on Manning. Late in the second quarter, Adalius Thomas sacked Manning and sent the ball flying out. The ball skittered toward the sideline, and Ahmad Bradshaw tried to give it a hand, but batting it, trying to preserve the Giants’ possession. But batting the ball is illegal and even though the Giants retained possession, the penalty gave the Giants third and 18 on the Patriots 39. Manning’s pass was incomplete and the Giants were thwarted.
